Poll

I have sent an email out to everyone asking them to complete my poll, once everyone has voted I will post the results.

My decisions

After completing all my research I have decided to do a country genre magazine and aim it towards both boys and girls between the ages of 14+ and anything up to about 40. First of all I was going to do a magazine aimed at only girls but after researching the target audience for Country Music magazines and music magazines in general it seems that boys are mainly buying the magazines so the target audience is mostly made up of the male gender. After completing all my research I am going to start planning and drafting for my actual magazine. I will start to think about the mise en scéne and decide what conventions I will include.

Questionnaire

 

This is my questionnaire that I plan on handing out to people outside of school as well of inside. From my research I have learnt that the target audience of country music covers all different ages starting from around 14+. There are young children that like it, to young adults and even people 60+ however these tend to not read the music magazienes and just stick to listening to the music on the radio. Music magazines tend to have a target audience of mainly boys so the majority gender I will hand it to will be boys but I have decided to also include some girls because I want there opinions too.

Music Magazine Industry

In recent months it has appeared that the music magazine industry has declined in it' sales. Magazines have been vastly replaced by the Internet online services. For example NME has its own website that allows the public to access what they would get in the magazine for free, and with today's technology such as mobile Internet people can read it on their phones out of their pockets on long journeys such as a train ride. It has also been said that the decline is due to the magazine front covers - people find that they are not 'standing out ' and 'grabbing their attention'. People would much rather watch a quick video lasting a few minuets to find out the latest music news or watch the latest interview with their new favourite artists than sit and read through pages of writing. Some find that they prefer to sit and read a magazine but with such a drastic change in the media industry many prefer to access the information for free, online, straight away. From this research I have learnt that I should make my magazine different and eye-catching as too catch the eye of the public like successful magazines such as Rolling Stone do. I have also learnt that the whole magazine needs to be like this the whole way through as to keep people wanting to read it and not wanting to watch video clips about the news inside instead.

MoodBoard

I have been working on my moodboard and including the sort of images I could use inside my magazine. These images have also given me inspiration as to what sort of images I could take for my front cover and double page spread.I have chosen images of guitars because through my research of country music magazines I found that guitars are involved a lot due to their big part in most country songs. The musical notes are just to fit in with the music magazine theme and the more background photo's (the daisy field and the country road) are there because I feel that both of these shots are very conventional with the country music genre. I watched a few country music video's and found that they are mostly set in surroundings such as these two. Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Payton Rae, Taylor Swift and Keith Urban are some of my personal favourite artists from this genre and found that they cover many country music magazines such as Country Weekly. I have also included words that link in with the country theme and sell lines that can be used on the front cover and double page spread. The colours involved on this moodboard are mostly pastel light colours such as pink, blue, brown and green. These all connote the idea of nature and the country lifestyle so I aim to include these with my music magazine colour palette. The quotes are from country artists I can use as sell lines or as lines from an interview inside the magazine, these can be featured on any point of my magazine.From this moodboard I have learnt about the colour palette's of Country music magazines and the sorts of images involved with them. I know I have many idea's about the images I am going to take for my own magazine and the way I am going to take them e.g I know that I will aim for a light, natural feel and I have decided on a few artists that I can include in my magazine. By researching and going through the different conventions of Country music magazines I have found what I should include in my magazine to make it like the well selling country music magazines.

Which Genre Have I Chosen And Why?

The genre I have chosen for my music magazine is Country. I have chosen to do Country because I already have idea's about what i could do on and with my magazine and have researched into the different conventions of  a typical country magazine.
What seems to be the conventions of this genre? Who is the target audience?

A country music magazine like most will include a masthead, covergirl and coverline, article names and barcodes. The target audience for a country music magazine is going to be anyone who listens to country music, the covergirl/boy is also going to depend on the audience it attracts but most music magazine's are aimed at the male gender which is mostly right for music magazines but they are also made to attract a female audience as well.
Who are the main publishers for this magazine?
Country Weekly is published by American Media, Inc.

Are there particular conventions to this type of magazine?
The cover image is always related somehow to the genre of the magazine. Somebody with a guitar or in a calm, country background is most paticularly common for a country music magazine.

Name three artists associated with this genre and analyse how each ones star image has been created. How are they represented and how does the target audience relate with them?
Carrie Underwood - Represented through cover image and photo shoot inside of the magazine. The article surrounding her usually includes an interview with the star so the target audience can relate with them personally through this. Carrie's star image has been created by promoting her with almost flawless pictures and articles about all her success'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Underwood

Luke Bryan - Also represented through cover images and photoshoots. The interview helps the target audience relate with him, this would be different to how Carrie's audience relates to her because Luke and Carrie are both different so there fans would relate to different things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Bryan

Rascal Flatts - Represented through cover images, photoshoot and articles also. Most interviews will feature personal responces from each member of the band, this way to target audience can relate to each member of the band personally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rascal_Flatts

Who is your target audience?
The target audience for most music magazines is boys. Country music has a wide variety of artists both male and female. The target audience mainly for a country music magazine is going to be somebody who is interested in Country music so when the magazine offers a free Carrie Underwood CD or a free Luke Bryan Mixtape this is the people that they are going to attract. My target audience is going to be both male and female aged 14+.

Analysis Of Three Different Music Magazines

Billboard Magazine:

Inside Billboard you will find a contents page, and then pages of articles and photoshoots as well as interviews and the main cover story. Also included were adds such as this one:

The contents page had a basic list of what was in the magazine and the page number to left but on the right side of the page there are images and bigger bolder writing. This is a good contents page because it tells you everything you need to know easily as well as been fun and interesting.
The rest of the magazine was filled with articles and images, photoshoots and adds.





Rolling Stone:

Inside Rolling Stone you will find much the same as inside Billboard; A contents page, articles, photoshoots, interviews and the main cover story. The fonts are mainly sans - serif font but occasionally the bold writing and letters have serif font. Also included inside the magazine was adds for things such as concert dates/tickets which links in well with the rock genre of this magazine. The rolling stone contents page features text which is bold and bright, images which link in with the articles, page numbers and colour linked in with the red/white/black theme of rolling stone. This is a good contents page because it is clear to find out what you want straight away but is also an interesting page to see and read.

Country Weekly:

Country weekly is a country genre magazine aimed at those who like and listen to country music. Country weekly is also full of adds, photo shoots, interviews, images, the main cover story and a contents page. However the adds in country weekly are very different to that of Rolling Stone and Billboard as they are aimed at a different target audience. The fonts in country weekly stick to sans-serif and are all bold and coloured to stand out and catch attention. The contents page for country weekly is split into 2 sections the top is covered with images and page numbers but the bottom left has page numbers for each department E.G  Letters 4 New Music 56 and the right side has Features E.G Shania Twain 18 On The Road 36.